Are we worse than last time?

[The Great Mass Debater 1,202]

Just that really

[AJ 1,358]

We appear to be. I find it utterly bizarre we're still in with a shout of survival. Surely Watford, Newcastle and Burnley aren't as bad as we are?!

[Surfer 1,547]

The table does not lie. So apparently they are.

[kingsway 101]

At the moment its hard to see us getting near to the paltry 21 points of two seasons ago! 

[Danke bitte 1,154]

5 minutes ago, kingsway said:

At the moment its hard to see us getting near to the paltry 21 points of two seasons ago! 

Does anyone know if we can buy points? Anyone…?? Anyone…. 

[CDMullins 498]

Not only are we worse than last time 

Our first 11 is worst than last year 

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 2,035]

Of course....at least we had (an albeit one dimensional) plan on how we were trying to score a goal. ...involving either Buendia or Cantwell, or on occasion Steipermann attempting to put Pukki through on goal.

Now, I really couldnt tell you , other than set pieces, what our gameplan is to score

 

[canarybubbles 2,199]

In terms of points, maybe not - we're on target for 20. In terms of performances, much worse. Last time we played attractive football (at least until the lockdown) and lost. This time we play garbage football and lose. And this time the deterioration looks terminal.

[chrisr1606 19]

Not just worse than last time, this is possibly the worst attempt we've ever made at staying in the Premier league. Even under Hughton, at least we were picking up the odd point at home. 

[dylanisabaddog 6,131]

7 hours ago, Danke bitte said:

Does anyone know if we can buy points? Anyone…?? Anyone…. 

Probably. You can buy a knighthood or a seat in the House of Lords so why not? Give Boris a free holiday and a new kitchen and we'll soon shoot up the table 

[yellowrider120 917]

On another thread (about 'The Model') I detailed the stats. from the Alex Neil relegation v the stats from the Farke (1) relegation v the current stats. from the Farke (2) / Smith relegation.  The decline is there for all to see and boy is it not frightening as hell.

'The Model' had as it's ultimate goal, 'retaining PL status by consistent improvement'. By any stretch of the imagination we are totally failing to get anywhere near achieving said target. Three of the 'Crown Jewels' have been sold with only Dereham and Air Rons remaining from the original five. Both will generate nothing like the £30M + fees that Webber and those absurd 'owners' once dreamed of just a few months ago. I'm sorry but it's unravelling at terrifying pace.

[Gibbo 131]

It feels that way at the moment...  like last time though, it would have been nice to play a season with a favourable number of injuries and see what a little momentum could bring.  The biggest difference between us and teams like Palace is that they can put out a reserve side of seasoned premier league performers, even with injuries and absences... while we have very little past that ideal starting 11.  

How many of those that started at Palace would be in your ideal starting 11?  Maybe 1 in Giannoulis...

What's probably worse for me is that we have a weaker team that last season in the championship.  How many teams go up and weaken their team rather than strengthen it... I know there were circumstances out of our control to an extent, but there lies one of the biggest problems.

 

[Capt. Pants 5,004]

Good heavens yes. We're worse than when Neil was here.

[Gibbo 131]

3 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

Good heavens yes. We're worse than when Neil was here.

Hard to compare in a way, as the gap between the prem and chumps has got massively bigger since Neil's time too - back then newly promoted teams could somewhat expect to compete against teams like Palace... but now even teams that you expect to be circling the pan are full of players we couldn't dream of signing after getting that initial sugar daddy hit and then managing to stick around at the feeding trough for several seasons.

Unless we get major investment, we're too reliant on luck to establish ourselves - have to get lucky that those gamble signings pay off (Tzolis... etc), lucky that don't get too many injuries (which is tough when you can't really rotate in the same sort of quality as in the starting 11) and lucky that you get an even rub of the green with VAR / refereeing decisions (yeah right).  Perfect storm could happen, but it's all stacked against us in reality.

It shouldn't be this way though, all clubs should be self sustaining... I really hope it all does come crashing down, as surely this business of putting more and more money in each year cannot be sustainable long term.  Who comes after the Saudi's to continue this current model... do we cap out with Musk and that other tool in a spaceship?

 

[Midlands Yellow 4,682]

It’s a tricky one but yes we are marginally more dross than last time. 

[cambridgeshire canary 7,797]

Rather amusing to think that after breakig our record transfer twice and spending 60 million our team is now somehow even worse than a team of free agents and youth players.

[Sooty57 414]

11 hours ago, Danke bitte said:

Does anyone know if we can buy points? Anyone…?? Anyone…. 

Yes it can be done; unfortunately there is nothing left in the kitty

[WD40 726]

Without a shadow of a doubt, but I’d take last years championship side sooner

[The Bunny 326]

1 hour ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Rather amusing to think that after breakig our record transfer twice and spending 60 million our team is now somehow even worse than a team of free agents and youth players.

Thats the point here. We sold our best player and squandered the proceeds. The problem isn’t the model, it’s the people in charge of implementing it.

[Disco Dales Jockstrap 1,959]

OTBC

[Ken Hairy 4,272]

I see Webber has voted 😂

Edited December 29, 2021 by Ken Hairy

[Paint Me Yellow 200]

Who's the one imbecile that voted no?

Is Delia a regular on this board?

[glory.win or die. 273]

17 hours ago, Surfer said:

The table does not lie. So apparently they are.

In fairness burnley are a point ahead with 4 games in hand, and most teams above us who look potentially catchpole have 1 orv2 games in hand.

We are down.

The interesting thing now is whether Newcastle buy themselves out of trouble, burnley I expect to win grind out enough points so id expect the bottom 3 to be

Leeds 32pts

Watford 29pts

Norwich 16pts

But Newcastle are hard to judge and could easily finish between us and Watford.

[Ken Hairy 4,272]

72-1 currently, I'd say that's fairly unanimous..... 

[canarybubbles 2,199]

5 hours ago, Ken Hairy said:

I see Webber has voted 😂

Webber's significant other has just turned up.

[keelansgrandad 6,680]

By a two country mile

[Paint Me Yellow 200]

I'll give the 2 sops that voted "No" the benefit of the doubt and assume they think we're also no better than last time.

[Danbury Yellow 126]

Not as good, but I think we will actually get more than 21 points this season, like 25 / 26. 
All about next season for me and who we purchase and if we get a couple of break through star players as right now we don’t actually have one in that category.  This is essential as sometimes one or two top quality players can raise the levels of the whole team, something we needed this season. 
 

We certainly do not want Newcastle to be relegated with us.